FORAMINIFERA 



PART III. THE FALKLANDS SECTOR OF THE ANTARCTIC 

 (EXCLUDING SOUTH GEORGIA) 



By Arthur Earland, f.r.m.s. 



(Plates I-X; text-figs. I, II) 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE 



THE first part of this report dealt with the bottom deposits of the Falkland Islands 

 and adjacent seas, an area outside the extreme limit of pack-ice, with a characteristic 

 sub-Antarctic fauna. The second part with the deposits of South Georgia, which lies 

 within the Antarctic region, although very nearly in the same latitude as the Falkland 

 Islands. The present report will deal with a large area farther south, extending over 

 nearly 90° of west longitude, or practically a quarter of the South Polar circumference. 

 With the exception of four deep-water soundings from the Drake Strait and Scotia Sea 

 (Sts. 386, 387,WS 205, 468), all the gatherings are from within the Antarctic convergence 

 line,^ which is accepted as the boundary of the Antarctic region. These four stations 

 outside the convergence, and two stations (St. 385, WS 469) which are near the line, 

 have furnished valuable data as to the extent and influence of Pacific incursions into the 

 Antarctic area. Apart from pelagic species, they are more in accord with the material 

 dealt with in the present report than with the sub- Antarctic fauna of the Falklands. 



The area included in this report extends from St. WS 552 in the Weddell Sea 

 (68° 53' S, 13° 03' W) to St. WS 503 in the Bellingshausen Sea (70° 03' 30" S, 

 100° 39' W). It includes the Scotia Sea and Drake Strait, the South Sandwich, South 

 Orkney and South Shetland groups of islands, the Bransfield Strait, Palmer Archipelago, 

 the Graham Land coast, and a few scattered soundings in the Bellingshausen Sea. One 

 hundred and twenty-six samples of material were received and examined, of which 

 106 were soundings, nine dredgings, three residues from trawl, four residues from nets 

 attached to dredge or trawl, and four beach sands or anchor mud. As might be expected 

 in gatherings made under difiicult conditions over such an immense area, the material is 

 not evenly distributed, a very large proportion consisting of soundings from the limited 

 area of the Bransfield Strait and Palmer Archipelago, where much survey work was done 

 by the ships. The advent of echo sounding will in future deprive zoologists of much 

 material hitherto obtained as a by-product of marine surveying. 



' The Antarctic convergence is the point at which the cold heavy Antarctic surface water meets the 

 warmer but more sahne sub-Antarctic surface water. It is marked by a sharp change of temperature with 

 corresponding climatic changes. It roughly corresponds with the extreme limit of pack-ice. The convergence 

 varies little in position with the seasons, and runs for the most part in about latitude 50° S, dipping to 

 below 60° S in the longitude of Cape Horn. 



